WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that colleges that accept federal money must allow military recruiters on campus, despite university objections to the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays.

Justices rejected a free-speech challenge from law schools and their professors who claimed they should not be forced to associate with military recruiters or promote their campus appearances.

Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the court, said the campus visits are an effective military recruiting tool.

“A military recruiter’s mere presence on campus does not violate a law school’s right to associate, regardless of how repugnant the law school considers the recruiter’s message,” he wrote.

The ruling upheld a law called the Solomon Amendment, which requires colleges that take federal money to accommodate recruiters. In addition, justices said Congress could directlydemand military access on campus, even without the threat of losing federal money.

Many universities forbid the participation of recruiters from public agencies and private companies that have discriminatory policies, and a national group of law schools and professors challenged the Solomon Amendment, saying the law violated their internal policies against discriminatory employers.

Law schools had become the latest battleground over the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy allowing gay men and women to serve in the military only if they keep their sexual orientations to themselves.

“We feel very much that the Solomon Amendment does keep us from sending a message of nondiscrimination to our students,” said George Fisher, a Stanford law professor who sits on the board of the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights the coalition of law schools and professors that brought the suit.

“It’s a message we think is central to the educational mission and, unlike the Supreme Court, we do think that it’s impossible to entertain a discriminatory employer under our auspices without muddying the message of nondiscrimination that we want to send,” Fisher said.

Both University of California, Berkeley, and California State University, East Bay, allow military recruiters on campus, but the case reignited debates over their presence.

Students at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz staged protests over military recruiters last year. One protest at San Francisco State University in March 2005 drew about 200 students who shut down a job fair that included military recruiters.

The ruling won’t change operations at the Stanford Law School, which has allowed recruiters to visit campus if there’s enough interest from students.

“I’m disappointed about the decision,” said Susan Robinson, associate dean for career services at the law school. “It was a disappointment to have the Supreme Court uphold the Solomon Amendment, but we’ll do what we have to do.”

The Supreme Court ruling was announced on a day that the court was jammed with visitors from the military, all dressed in uniform. Justices heard arguments in the case in December and signaled then that they were concerned about hindering a Defense Department need to fill its ranks when the nation is at war.

“This is an important victory for the military and ultimately for our national security,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice.

College leaders have said they could not afford to lose federal help, some $35 billion a year.

Joshua Rosenkranz, the attorney for the challengers of the law, said the case called attention to the military policy.

“We lost a skirmish in a much larger civil rights battle for the rights of gays and lesbians, which is a movement we are winning,” he said.

Roberts, writing his third decision since joining the court last fall, said there are other less drastic options for protesting the policy. “Students and faculty are free to associate to voice their disapproval of the military’s message,” he wrote.

“Recruiters are, by definition, outsiders who come onto campus for the limited purpose of trying to hire students — not to become members of the school’s expressive association,” he wrote.

The federal law mandates that universities give the military the same access as other recruiters or forfeit federal money. The amendment is named for its chief sponsor, Rep. Gerald Solomon, R-N.Y., and was co-sponsored by Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy.

“This ruling is significant,” Pombo said in a statement. “Universities that denied recruiters on their campuses were not only limiting opportunities for their own students, but in doing so did a disservice to our military men and women. They played politics and lost.”

Roberts filed the only opinion, which was joined by every justice but Samuel Alito. Alito did not participate because he was not on the bench when the case was argued.

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